Chopsticks
by Houkanno Yuuhou
Summary: Received 3rd Place (tied with Tailfluff!) at the LJ Iyfanfic Challenge Community for the "Chopsticks" theme one-shot challenge. When someone goes through the trouble of making ordinary eating utensils into something so pretty, what is the meaning behind


This one-shot received (and tied with) 3rd Place at the Livejournal Inuyasha Fanfic Challenge Community (hello to everyone I know from there!).

This takes place somewhere a little past the present timeline in the manga. Originally, I didn't know the fate of Kagome-Papa, and recently, I read that he is dead, thanks to an accident. I didn't see if it was thanks to a car accident or whatnot, so I took certain liberties when I decided his fate. FYI, the Kobe earthquake did happen, on January 17th, 1995, to be exact.

It didn't take long for him to realize that there was something different about her as she exited the rickety well. Aside from the strange way she smiled as if the weight of the world had been abruptly lifted from her shoulders, he slowly became aware that she had styled her hair in an odd ball shape, and two sticks protruded from the raven-colored puff of hair.

The smile never left her face as her huge backpack fell to the ground, resulting in a stiff "thud," and then she embraced him. Of course, he knew that he shouldn't shy away from her affection since she'd been doing such a daring move every time they were together for a few weeks now, but just the same, his boyish feelings kicked in no matter how much he welcomed the hug, and he snorted vaguely as he tried to hide the encroaching redness on his cheeks.

At least her proximity to him allowed him to inspect the sticks that, upon closer view, looked peculiarly like--"Chopsticks?"

She pulled away and noted the confusion in his eyes. A finger began to nervously fiddle with the bun, but her smile grew warmer as she answered, "It's a little hot today, so I decided to wear my hair up." She peeked at him coyly. "Do you like it?"

All of the sudden, he found that looking at the ground was more interesting.

The sound of lighthearted giggling filled his ears. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

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The day grew more humid, and with it, grew Kagome's desire to swim.

He flexed and yawned while maintaining his position on his tree branch, and every now and then, his probing gaze settled on Kagome's becoming figure. The beautiful mass of glossy black hair cascaded from her shoulders now, like a waterfall at midnight, and the chopsticks were placed carefully upon her clothes. For whatever damn cause she was wearing eating utensils in her hair, he still didn't know. However, he did reason that the sticks must be special to her, somehow.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he jumped from the massive tree limb and headed toward the very thing which stood out like a beacon in his mind.

The moment he picked them up, he noticed the engraving on them. The chopsticks themselves were really quite beautiful workmanship. Someone had taken care while carving the delicate pieces of wood. They were covered with black lacquer, and in fine silver writing, the words written on them were, "My little girl. How proud of you I am, and how proud I will always be."

He scratched his right ear, as he always did when he was pondering something. Who would go through the trouble of making chopsticks look so pretty? So he decided to put a voice to his question. "Kagome?"

She had been very aware of his presence for quite some time now, but he noticed that she still blushed as she stared at him. "Yes?"

He held up the chopsticks so she could see and pointed at them. "Why are you wearing these in your hair?"

"That is the style in my era," she answered and looked at him matter-of-factly.

He shook his head. As she came out of the water, he pointed to the silver writing. "Who wrote this?"

"Why are you so adamant about knowing?"

He watched her face and knew that something was up because she kept glancing at the ground; her eyes cloudy with waning sorrow. Suddenly, he felt guilty about being a little nosy. "I...I just wanted to know. That's all." He handed them to her. "They're too pretty to be for eating. That's why I wanted to know."

A sad smile graced her lips. "I received them after I learned how to use chopsticks without spilling my food everywhere. I was really young, and everyone was so proud of me." Her hands fondled the sticks lovingly, and then she placed them in her pack. "They were a gift from my...father."

Now he understood. "You never talk about him."

She eyed him accusingly. "You never talk about yours."

"That's because I hardly knew him. You actually know yours."

Her eyes clouded over with sorrow again, and the sad smile returned to her face. "Knew him, you mean. He died last year while away on business in Kobe."

"Kobe?"

"Um, I think it has another name in this era. Hyogo, perhaps?"

He nodded his head at the familiar name. "Ah, I've heard of it."

"It's called Kobe in my era. There was a major earthquake last January, and he...well, he died in it."

"Earthquake?"

"When the ground rumbles and destroys things."

"Oh, I understand now."

She sighed and finished drying her hair with her towel. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, and then she cut through the silence with something that was just a little louder than a whisper. "I take care of them. I was afraid of wearing them here, but I'm...starting to forget him, so I'm wearing them, to remember him. I can't forget him."

The feeling of helplessness associated with losing a cherished parent was something with which he was very familiar, unfortunately. He didn't hesitate as he pulled her to him and rocked her gently.

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"Where are they?!"

"Kagome-chan?"

The scene spread before them was bizarre, at best. An extremely frantic Kagome was tearing through her bag, throwing items aside at random, and mumbling many curses that was making Sango cover Shippou's ears--much to the kit's annoyance.

Finally, the bag was thrown to the ground, and Kagome screamed in frustration. Soon, she was quenching the ground with her tears.

He watched as Miroku slinked his left arm around Kagome, and Inuyasha cursed himself because it should have been him doing that. The monk used his uncovered hand to wipe the tears from her face. "Kagome-sama? May I ask what are you looking for?"

The young would-be miko grasped the monk's robes harshly and then cried fresh tears, staining the material. "They're gone. They're gone! I can't believe they're gone!! How?" she choked out. "How?! How am I going to remember him now?!"

Then he remembered. She must have been looking for the chopsticks...oh, no.

An idea popped into his head, and he ran into the forest named after him; named for someone's impression of the monster in him, and so unusually it was named this night, as the "monster" ran to do something so odd...even to him.

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He knew that he lacked the paper wrappings that Kagome was oft so fond of when she gave them gifts, but he figured if there was a way to sneak them into her pack without her knowledge, then everything would still be a surprise. They weren't as pretty as her father's gift had been, but he took extra care in carving the design and the words, so he hoped they were enough.

His heart swelled with pride as he realized that this was the first time he'd taken time to make something for someone other than his mother.

"Inuyasha!"

The girl he longed to give them to hopped out of the well and waved at him. He was so excited that he almost didn't recognize the objects in her hair. "Huh?!" he gasped aloud.

She smiled brightly and hugged him to her. "Oh!" she exclaimed as she fingered the familiar black chopsticks in her hair. "Mama returned them last night! Silly me laid them on the kitchen table, and Mama rescued them before Souta used them with his food," she laughed.

Stupid. Stupid! Now he felt foolish!

He tried to hide them in his left sleeve, but Kagome's perceptiveness caught him before he could do so. "Inuyasha? What's that in your hand?"

"Keh."

She snorted and grabbed his arm. "Right. Let me see!"

He returned the snort and half-heartedly mumbled, "Nosy," as she took the gift he'd worked on so hard, just to please her.

A tiny shriek came from her, and he watched her inspect his handiwork. "Inuyasha...what?"

"My...my gift to you," he stuttered. "I wanted to replace the ones your father gave you, but these can never replace something as fine as those."

She read the handwriting and then emitted a happy cry. "You...you! You did this for me??" She reread the handwriting and then surprised him by offering him a light kiss on his right cheek. "You...you don't know how much these mean to me! I will always treasure them because you made them for me. And yes, I always will."

He felt his cheeks burning and couldn't keep the grin from his face. She loved them; loved them, as he knew she loved him. How could he not be happy? She hadn't even hesitated in her answer!

She took his left hand in her right, and he didn't think twice about squeezing hers affectionately. The grin on his face widened as he stared longingly at her, and it was her turn to blush after that.

The sun shone brilliantly, reaching everything with its powerful rays that day, and they even seemed to glow somehow when they spread their warmth over the etching on a pair of intricately carved chopsticks.

"Beautiful Kagome. Please be with me always."


End file.
